1. Technical Field
Aspects of this document relate generally to mountain biking helmets.
2. Background Art
Enduro mountain biking is a relatively new mountain biking racing format. The format includes multiple stages including timed downhills and untimed uphills. The competitor with the lowest overall time wins. Currently, many of the riders wear full-face helmets meaning the helmet has a chin bar.
Because enduro mountain biking is not as technically demanding as a pure downhill event and the downhill portions are a little less treacherous, a downhill certified helmet is not required. However, many riders choose to wear a downhill certified or full-face helmet because of the added safety features, in particular, a chin bar, which is found on all downhill certified helmets. As a general rule, downhill certified helmets are heavier than bike/mountain bike certified helmets. In addition to the added weight of a downhill certified helmet, they generally are hotter to wear because of the reduced number of ventilation ports and full-face enclosure.
Downhill certified helmets can be a tremendous burden when a rider is going uphill. Weight and heat build-up can tax a rider's energy and speed when climbing. Even though the uphill portions of an enduro are not timed, the rider still has to get to the top of the downhill ahead of a cut-off time and has to have the endurance to meet the physical and mental demands of the downhill. If a rider has to burn a lot of energy to get to the top/start of a timed portion, there won't be much left in the “tank” for the part that matters to overall placing.
In addition to getting down the timed portion as quickly as possible, a rider wants to have the confidence to know they'll arrive safely at the finish. Downhills are tricky and accidents happen. Riders want to be safe in the event of an accident. Having a chin bar affords an additional element of protection, which gives a rider confidence.
For the foregoing reasons, a number of helmet designs have been created on the market to include a removable chin bar that allows a rider to ride with the same helmet, with or without the chin bar, depending on the circumstances and conditions anticipated or encountered by the rider. For example, one helmet includes a bolt on chin bar that is attachable or detachably removed from the helmet with a tool, such as a screwdriver, Allen wrench, or other driving instrument, that secures the chin bar to the helmet. Bolt-on chin bars can be time intensive and unwieldy for users to attach or remove from the helmet, and can require more time to remove and replace the chin bar than with other detachable chin bar designs, such as the tool-less plastic connections.
Another mounting biking helmet includes a chin bar that attaches or plugs into the top portion of the helmet from below without the use of a tool. The attachable/detachable chin bar attaches to the helmet with a tab or flange that is inserted into a socket or sleeve configured to receive the tab or flange. The chin bar can be removed or released from the helmet by pressing or engaging two flexible tabs or buttons. Upon pressing the tabs, the chin bar can be slid downwards away from the helmet. Another biking helmet includes a chin bar that plugs into the helmet from below, and can be released from the helmet by engaging two buttons.
These helmet designs, while allowing for their respective chin bars to be attached and detached, depend primarily on plastic connections. The use of Vertical alignment features for attachment of chin bars to these helmet designs can make it difficult for a user to align the chin bar with the plastic connections on the helmet to allow the chin bar to be attached or detached, especially when the user is wearing the helmet. Due to the nature of enduro racing and a rider's need to attach and detach the chin bar for different points of a race, such as during uphill and downhill portions of a race, the difficulty of aligning the chin bar with the helmet for these helmets is inconvenient and undesirable for a rider. Additionally, these conventional removable chin bar helmet designs provide chin bars that have limited resistance to impacts that are not head-on impacts, such as impacts with a side portion or lower portion of the helmet and chin bar.